Team Liquid welcome Ace and tOfu to their Dota 2 squad

In the wake of Aydin “Insania” Sarkohi’s retirement and the benching of former offlaner Jonáš “SabeRLight-” Volek, Team Liquid have two new Dota 2 players in the form of Marcus “Ace” Christensen and Erik “tOfu” Engel.

The European organization announced their new acquisitions in the wee hours of the morning, specifically around 3AM ET, through their various social media channels.

Proven many times over

Prior to Liquid breaking the news, many including myself wondered where the Gaimin Gladiators players would be headed next in their Dota careers. The former roster and the Gaimin organization have been embroiled in a legal battle for some time now, due primarily to contract disputes if Gaimin Gladiators CEO Nick Cuccovillo is to be believed.

Two players always on the same wavelength, now flowing as Liquid.

Welcome @AceDota & @tOfuDota2 🌊 pic.twitter.com/GpTSWi44xI

— Team Liquid Dota (@teamliquiddota) October 9, 2025

This eventually culminated in the entirety of Gaimin withdrawing from The International 2025 (TI14), and subsequently leaving their futures up in the air. Furthermore, Quinn “Quinn” Callahan retired from professional play just after TI14 concluded, further complicating the Gaimin roster situation. But now we know where Ace and tOfu are going, and I definitely can’t say this is any sort of a surprise.

Both of these two players have been lane partners since Gaimin’s dominance between 2023 and 2024. They won multiple top-level LANs together during that period — ironically beating Liquid in most of those occasions, as their rivalry was at its peak during this time. They are thus a known quantity as a lane duo, and have championship pedigree through and through.

Like a glove?

Moreover, they play the exact roles that the roster was missing after SabeRLight- left and Insania called it quits on his career. They needed an offlaner and a support player, so Ace and tOfu will fit into the lineup almost seamlessly. That said, tOfu plays position 4 and not 5, which means there’s overlap between himself and Samuel “Boxi” Svahn.

Given tOfu’s synergy with Ace, I’m thinking Boxi will move to the hard support role for the new competitive season. Boxi used to play offlane for this Liquid roster back when they were still in Alliance, but eventually switched to position 4 when Neta “33” Shapira signed with them in the 2023-2024 season. It’s pretty clear therefore that Boxi knows how to be flexible if the team needs him to be, so I have every faith that he’ll acclimate to position 5 if he is indeed going to switch to it.

Worldbeaters no more

Technically, Alimzhan “watson” Islambekov and Arman “Malady” Orazbayev are still signed to Gaimin Gladiators, but considering that watson is one of the defendants listed in the case filed by the organization, it’s all but impossible that he’ll still be there over the coming weeks or months. Malady, on the other hand, isn’t in the parties being sued by Gaimin, so it’s still somewhat feasible for Gaimin to rebuild around him.

The thing is, former coach Aske “Cy-” Larsen also left the organization just two weeks ago, so there truly will be nothing left of the once-unstoppable force that beat everyone to a pulp in 2023 and 2024. And if Malady does leave after all, it’ll truly be the end of an era, and personally I don’t think Gaimin Gladiators will ever field a Dota 2 roster again.